Readers’ views on health care, cats

Politicians want to shut down Planned Parenthood. Patients who rely on public health care programs like Title X and Medicaid would be blocked from receiving care at Planned Parenthood health centers. About 60 percent of Planned Parenthood patients rely on these programs, and we can’t neglect millions who are already struggling to get by.

Planned Parenthood is the nation’s leading reproductive health care provider and advocate. Its health centers provide supportive reproductive health care to 2.4 million people in a year.

If this happens, Planned Parenthood patients would lose their chosen provider, and many would have nowhere else to turn for health care. Planned Parenthood’s patients have no other accessible health care options.

We can show our support for millions of people across the nation, regardless of their age, income, race, gender, and location. By signing the letter on the Planned Parenthood official website, we’d be one step closer to ensuring access to cancer screenings, birth control, HIV testing, and much more for millions of people.

Bella Khatib-Shahidi

Novi

Get your cat ‘fixed’ by five months

If you like cats, you’ll really like this letter. If you don’t like cats, you’ll also like this letter. We can come together on this! If you don’t like cats, this proposal means far fewer cats doing the things that annoy you. If you do like cats, it means those born will be more likely to find good homes. Here it is:

If enough people get their cats “fixed” before five months of age, there could be about two million fewer cats born in the U.S. each year. This will doubtless delight those who don’t like them, but will also delight those who do like them. Until now there has been much confusion about when to spay/ neuter cats, and most people seemed to think that six months or later is the right age — but by six months, cats can and very often do, have a litter. Those kittens can have their own litters five months later. No wonder the shelters were full and there were so many unwanted cats roaming.

This past year, the most prestigious national veterinary organizations agreed that for many reasons — medical, behavioral, and because of the overpopulation of cats — the best age to “fix” them is five months, right after their ‘kitten shots.’